WITNESS A WORLD'S RECORD MADE! OR BE A PART OF IT!
May 19, 2016 by Helen Borgers

The International Trumpet Guild Conference is coming to the Hyatt Regency Hotel Orange County, May 31st through June 4th, and the organizers are determined to beat the world’s record number of trumpet players playing valved trumpets in a fanfare. The current record of 105 players was achieved in an event organized at the Aveley Football Stadium in Thurrock, Essex, UK on September 7th, 2014.

Photo of Doc Severinsen, courtesy of International Trumpet Conference

This year’s fanfare will be a Grand Happening! Doc Severinsen will direct the ensemble in a piece for six trumpet parts and tympani, originally composed by John Williams and arranged by Owen Kirschner for the opening of the 1984 Olympics. ALL trumpet players are invited to participate! And the public is welcome to come witness the event!

The Fanfare, which is a free event on Tuesday, May 31st, at 7:15pm, will be performed at the fountain at the hotel’s entrance, and will officially kick-off the conference and herald the Opening Gala Concert which will immediately follow in the Grand Ballroom. Tickets for the concert are $25.00.

The Opening Gala Concert will feature Arturo Sandoval, Georgina Jackson, and CSULB’s own Jeff Jarvis with the Concert Jazz Orchestra! Multi-talented Arturo will play trumpet, keyboards, timbales, and who knows what else? He will open with a quintet behind him, and after intermission, both he and Georgina will sit in with the CJO for three tunes each. A lead trumpeter and vocalist, Georgina has built a strong reputation in the UK, where she is a popular regular at Ronnie Scott’s.

The CJO is coming off another really exciting year. They recently returned from Chicago, where they and the CJO Combo performed at the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival. Although the festival is non-competitive, both ensembles were named the most outstanding Big Band and Combo at the festival! In their review of the CJO, the Chicago Tribune said, “The school players were notable not just for the distance traveled but for the quality of their music. Friday night's big band performance, led by Jeff Jarvis, director of jazz studies and an accomplished trumpeter and composer, featured high energy performances by brass players leading the charge as the band seemed to push waves of sound over the capacity crowd in the college's Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel.”

This Opening Gala Concert on May 31st will be the last time this particular set of players will be together in the CJO because many of them have just graduated. Next semester’s ensemble will feature a completely new rhythm section, and it looks as though the incoming piano player is going to be a phenomenal addition as director Jeff Jarvis has selected a freshman, just out of Valencia High School! He must be very good to have earned such an exalted place so young! They’ll also be gaining a trumpet student from The Manhattan School of Music, Ryan deWeese, from whom will be expected great things!

The International Trumpet Guild has over 6,000 members worldwide and this annual conference brings them together in a different country each year—professional players and students who intend to go pro—to listen to and perform music for four days, from 7:30am to midnight. The last day is an open jam with a house trio from Cal State Fullerton.

On-air personality, Helen Borgers, can be heard on KJazz 88.1 FM from 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Monday through Friday. As a jazz broadcaster, Helen has been invited to give pre-concert lectures at various performing arts centers, served on panels in jazz conventions all over the world, and lectured about the history of jazz in middle schools, high schools, and colleges. She has also written articles for international jazz publications and regularly emcees concerts, festivals, and club dates throughout southern California.